Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.34.2
Object Name
Songsheet
Title
WE WILL STAND THE STRUGGLE THROUGH
Place
Nottinghamshire, Nottingham, Newstead, Durham, Houghton Colliery
Events
Miners' Strike 1984, Durham Lockout
Date
1984
Description
A3 printed songsheet 'We Will Stand the Struggle Through'. The songsheet is a photocopy of a hand-drawn item, designed to be distributed. The sheet has an abstract design around the edges, with the title at the top of the page. On the left hand side of the song sheet is sheet music for the song. On the right hand, the lyrics have been typewritten, with a note that the lyrics have been adapted in 1984 from The Durham Lockout, written by Thomas Armstrong in 1892.
There are two black and white drawings on the sheet, one (bottom left) showing Houghton Main Colliery near Durham in 1893, and the other (top right) showing Newstead, Nottingham in 1984. Both images show police lined up against civilians.
Published by St Albans and District Nottinghamshire Miners Strike Support Committee.
The 1984-85 Miners' Strike was called after the government announced plans to close 20 pits, at a cost of twenty thousand miners jobs, which the miners accurately saw as the beginning of the closure of all the pits in the UK. The strike lasted for over a year before ending unsuccessfully in March 1985. While letters from the NCB to strikers claimed that it was "absolutely untrue" that the government planned to ultimately close 85 pits, the NUM's speculation was correct. A second round of closures was announced in 1992 closing almost all the mines in the UK, leaving former pit towns with extremely high rates of unemployment and deprivation that last to this day.
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